skypilot Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Yeah have sneaky peak as we drove past it the otherday. Has the biggest patch repair i have every seen on an aircraft. Unpresurized flight all the way to france would be an expensive prospect with a very high fuel burn, probably explaining the 4 day trip. Airbus sent their AOG team to do the repair. The 4 day trip is probably explained by the fact they/aircraft can only fly at a max airspeed of 250knts below 10,000 feet? I would be hoping they identified all of the cracks before the flight - I would not like to be flying it if the tail fell off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 My calculations are, it is about 9,704.01 nautical miles (measured on GE Via Darwin, Singapore, Mumbai, Cairo, Paris as an uninformed guess). At 250Kts that would be 38.81604 Hours of continuous flight time alone - factor in the number of stops for refuelling/turnaround, crew rest etc. 4 days would be about right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singletracker Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 AOG ?? Aircraft On Ground, it's a recovery service for aircraft that can't get home without some serious maintenance 'in the field' so to speak. It would be a fun flight home that's for sure, pretty scenic They may actually be able to fly faster than 250 kts, it depends on the conditions set out in the ATP (Authority To Proceed) from CASA. 250 below 10000' doesn't apply in most of the places they will be flying over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest volcom1720 Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Emirates!? What about the Flying red kangaroo!? Two mid-air plunges! One recently Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Henare Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 Emirates!? What about the Flying red kangaroo!? Two mid-air plunges! One recently Number one rule, regardless of the aircraft or flight. Always have you seatbelt on. I have little sympathy for passngers that don't... except the ones going to the loo or for a stretch, and obviously the flight attendents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest volcom1720 Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 It'd be horrible sitting on the dunny in the airplane and the plane plunges down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binkles Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 It'd be horrible sitting on the dunny in the airplane and the plane plunges down Dunno, with everyone else needing to change their pants, you've just got to wipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randy Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Used to love to fly..... as passenger. It is hard to get me on one today. I am sure I will catch a lot of grief for saying that but spending 21 years in Saudi and seeing all the stuff there I just became more and more nervous each year. Used to have dinner many nights with expatriate pilots for Saudia. The confirmed stories would make one never want to fly again....at least over there. I did several tours in Tabuk and when flying to Jeddah sometimes an 737 would just clear the fence at the end of the runway taking off. My last tour in Tabuk I would drive to Jeddah when I had to go...and that is some drive that beats the crap out of you so you have to know how much I would hate to get on that plane. On the other hand if I could schedule a flight and know there was a Westerner in the pilots seat..of course that woud have been on a jumbo.....I would take the flight. One day a friend and I were golfing at the old sand course in Jeddah and there was a hole close to the approach runway and we were watching and Emirates flight coming in. We were right under it. He flared....but the problem was he was still about 800 feet in the air! For a few seconds...probaly only about 2 to tell you the truth...it looked as if he was going to pancake in. It looked almost like a straight down vertical descent then you heard the engines spooling up and he gained lift just in time and did a go around. Pretty scary looking thing. My pilot friends told me about it the next day. The guy flared out way too high. Never read anything in the paper about any of those incidents there. Then I was coming back from the golf course and saw the plane carrying the Hajjis back to Africa...it had a Canadian crew...a stretched DC 8 I believe. It was on fire and looked like it was going to make it. He was on a good glide path and the thing just dropped like a rock. There was an huge explosion...fireball. Made me sick to my stomach. I will fly when it is a have to case but I guess age has gotten the better of my nerves. The Quantas record has always impressed me....there has to be a lot more to it than just sheer good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dow Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Eh Randy Here's an exercise for nervous travellers... Get yourself a clock or a watch with a second hand. Sit it on a suitable surface and watch it. See how the second hand jumps once every second. Each one of those seconds marks a successful safe fatality free landing or takeoff on a commercial airliner somewhere in the world, across all airlines in all countries. Once in around a fortnight, across the year, one of those seconds marks a fatal accident. But sitting there, as each time the second hand passes a second, you imagine you're on a successful landing or takeoff, the odds are pretty good. You'd have to sit there watching your timepiece 24/7 for nearly three weeks before one of the seconds would mark a fatal RPT accident in a western built airliner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tennyson Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Thanx John, Now I know, I'll only ever fly in the first half of those fortnights..... Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 I find it interesting how many people have a fear of flying yet drive every day of the week without giving it a second thought. Most incredible is an associate of mine who is scared of flying and can't understand why I want to do it, yet he brags about doing 180km/h up the Sydney freeway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest volcom1720 Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 I find it interesting how many people have a fear of flying yet drive every day of the week without giving it a second thought. Most incredible is an associate of mine who is scared of flying and can't understand why I want to do it, yet he brags about doing 180km/h up the Sydney freeway. I can't agree more. IN FACT, it's more likely to have a car or road accident then crash in an aeroplane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgutteri Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Was just about to say the same thing - when Dad was flying, he felt much safer in the air than going to and from the airport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randy Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Eh Randy Here's an exercise for nervous travellers... Get yourself a clock or a watch with a second hand. Sit it on a suitable surface and watch it. See how the second hand jumps once every second. Each one of those seconds marks a successful safe fatality free landing or takeoff on a commercial airliner somewhere in the world, across all airlines in all countries. Once in around a fortnight, across the year, one of those seconds marks a fatal accident. But sitting there, as each time the second hand passes a second, you imagine you're on a successful landing or takeoff, the odds are pretty good. You'd have to sit there watching your timepiece 24/7 for nearly three weeks before one of the seconds would mark a fatal RPT accident in a western built airliner. You are 100% correct in your statement as well as the ones that follow your comments. I quote basically the same statistics to friends or other family members about flying. This fear took a while to develop. I am not even sure it had anything to do with some of the events I saw. But once it is there it is hard to get rid of. Since my return home in 2001 I have not really needed to get on a plane except for a few trips. So I went from flying often to not at all. In my post I did not mention that during my 4 year remote site tour in Tabuk I saw a traffic fatality everyday, either on the way to or home from work.....and Tabuk is not a big town. For people who have never lived in Saudi they find that statistic very hard to beleive....but if one has been there and seen the driving they know....many other places have the same problem also. I will get on a plane but I must say that I still would prefer not to. Phobias are hard to understand. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 I find it interesting how many people have a fear of flying yet drive every day of the week without giving it a second thought. Most incredible is an associate of mine who is scared of flying and can't understand why I want to do it, yet he brags about doing 180km/h up the Sydney freeway. I can't agree more. IN FACT, it's more likely to have a car or road accident then crash in an aeroplane. Considering I drive my car several times a day and have not flown for more than 2 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Considering I drive my car several times a day and have not flown for more than 2 years? That's where the statistics get really tricky. If you count up the total number of kilometres of car trips, including the relatively slow speed and safe trips to the local shops and the slow speed trip to work, then the car is safer without a doubt. To get a real comparison though, you need to cull the data to something more meaningful. Say, toonly those trips of 100km or more. Something more like the distance you could conceivable fly it instead. Then the GA aircraft starts to pull ahead in the safety stakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 That's my point, if I do not go flying then I will not get killed in an aircraft accident therefore it is 100% safe for me? Where as I am in the car for several trips and several hours per day so it has got to have a higher risk? Statistics, don't ya love em? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Hah, yeah very true Skypilot. Anything you don't do has to be safer, doesn't it. Mind you ... are you an air statistic or a car statistic if a plane falls on you while you're walking to your car Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Hah, yeah very true Skypilot. Anything you don't do has to be safer, doesn't it. Mind you ... are you an air statistic or a car statistic if a plane falls on you while you're walking to your car Bloody unlucky I would say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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